I’m always shocked we felt the need to reinvent this wheel for internet commerce. My family was in mail order in the 70s and 80s, the laws were well defined and easily followed: if the company had a physical presence in the sales tax zone sales tax had to be charged, if no the buyer is supposed to self confess on their income taxes. It was right there on the mail order form “residents of blah, blah, blah add x% tax”. Internet commerce IS mail order. All the same rules should have applied, but somehow the world got snowed under by the .com boom and thought it was a brand new thing needing new rules.
Good point, but I think some of the confusion is understandable because many people don’t see the relationship between a Sears catalog and a Sears department store the same way they see the relationship between an Amazon website and an Amazon distribution center where no customers ever conduct business. Heck — I’ll bet most people who have an Amazon distribution center in their state aren’t even aware that it’s there.